Baltimore

Sports History

NFL (Pro-Football)

The city of Baltimore was awarded their first football franchise in the AFL in 1947 after the folding of the Miami Seahawks. The team was named the Baltimore Colts after the rich horse racing history of the city, despite the hopes for a new grand-slam team the Baltimore Colts struggled miserably until 1957 where the new quarterback Johnny Unitas stepped in to take control of the colts, which he did carrying the team to an extraordinary 9-1 record and went on in the post season to the very first televised Superbowl in 1958 and defeated the New York Giants in what skeptics call the greatest game ever. The Colts went on to their second straight Superbowl title win in a rematch against the Giants. 
 
Following that the Colts lived a mediocre franchise, making playoffs but never finishing up. 1964 the Colts went to their third NFL championship game against the Cleveland Browns and were shutout 27-0. 3 years later the Colts were once again in a Superbowl against the New York Jets, the Colts were favored to win by 18 points. The Jets would win the biggest upset in NFL history that night. Superbowl V two years after that against the Dallas Cowboys was a sigh of relief as the Colts won the game with a 38 yd field goal with 5 seconds left on the clock, that would be the last Superbowl title won by the Baltimore Colts. The late 70s the Colts were anything but the greatest team of the NFL, not making playoffs at all and the fans of the city were disapointed in the owner, Robert Irsay. In the 1983 draft, the colts picked John Elway with their first pick of the draft. However John Elway was reluctant to play for the broken Colts and threatened to play for minor league baseball instead of playing for Baltimore. He was traded to the Denver Bronco's where he would become one of the greatest quarterback's in NFL history. In late 1983 the fans self esteem was at an all time low and Robert Irsay was looking for potential buyers in other cities, the state of Maryland tried it's very best to keep the Colts in Baltimore but failed. On the morning of March 29th the Baltimore Colts were known as the Indianapolis Colts.

Baltimore would fail several attempts to create a new

franchise and even joined the CFL as the Baltimore Colts. Robert Irsay filed a lawsuit against the name and was then changed to the Baltimore Stallions, in the 2 years of the franchise in the CFL the Baltimore Stallions won the Grey Cup in 1995 despite their sucess Baltimore wanted to be in the NFL. Late that season Art Modell came to an agreement with the city of Cleveland and the Browns where the team would move to Baltimore would be known as the Ravens after Edar Allen Poe a famous

poet from Baltimore. Coached by Brian Billick who led the team to win Superbowl XXXV against the New York Giants. After that the Ravens would not win in the playoffs even after clinching a berth in the 2006 season finishing 13-3, the best record in the franchise but falling short to the ghosts of Baltimore, the Colts.